Five Indie Game Developers Nominated for $10,000 Direct2Drive Vision Award

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$10,000 prize honors the spirit of creativity and breakthrough technology often missed by larger game developers.

By IGN Staff

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Celebrating design innovation and game-play excellence from one of the most unsung groups in the gaming world – the independent development community – Direct2Drive, a leader in digital distribution of video games, today announced the five finalists for its second annual Direct2Drive Vision Award.

The Direct2Drive Vision Award honors independent developers whose games present the new ideas and concepts that will help spark innovation in gaming. The finalists and winner will be presented live on stage by IGN's on air personality Jessica Chobot at the 12th Annual Independent Games Festival (IGF) Awards, which takes place on Thursday, March 11 during the 2010 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, CA. The winning team will receive a $10,000 prize from Direct2Drive.

"The future of gaming hinges on the ability for developers to constantly innovate and entertain players of all types. Indie developers are continuously generating the new ideas and concepts that will help drive gaming forward. The Vision Award is one of the ways for us to recognize the community and these five incredible games," said Sutton Trout, vice president, Direct2Drive Digital Content.

All five of the 2010 Direct2DriveVision Award nominees will be given the opportunity to distribute their respective games on Direct2Drive. More information about the finalists can be found on D2D's IGF Vision website, located at http://www.direct2drive.com/promos/igf-2010/

The Vision Award is just one of several ways that IGN and its subsidiaries, Direct2Drive and GameSpy Technology, are supporting and recognizing the independent development community. Leading up to the award ceremony, Direct2Drive released a game bundle of IGF nominees from previous years. The bundle, released today and only available until March 12th, is priced at $29.95 – a more than 75% savings below the costs to purchase each game individually.

At the 2009 Game Developers Conference, GameSpy Technology made one of its most significant moves in support of the independent games movement with the announcement of the "GameSpy Indie" program, which delivers GameSpy's in-game technology and services to indie developers at no cost when their games are distributed through Direct2Drive. Since 2006, Direct2Drive's Indie channel has launched more than 150 independent games. All of Direct2Drive's Indie channel offerings can be found at http://www.direct2drive.com/buy-indie-games-download.